


Burning

by aceofsparrows



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: Alcoholism, F/M, So much angst, Songfic!, bc it's seph, obvs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24528880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofsparrows/pseuds/aceofsparrows
Summary: There have always been cracks… but this is an ever-widening canyon, threatening the very fabric of their world. Hades and Persephone are falling apart… but what are they going to do to stop it?
Relationships: Eurydice/Orpheus (Hadestown), Hades/Persephone (Hadestown)
Kudos: 23





	Burning

**Author's Note:**

> songfic inspired by John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” (I highly recommend Lia Pappas-Kemps' cover on youtube... chills...)
> 
> (TW: as with many Seph fics, mentions of alchoholism. There’s also a bit of swearing in this one)

_**It’s not a silly little moment  
** **It’s not the storm before the calm** _

Things are always eerily perfect when she comes home. The first few weeks are always calm and easy as they get used to each other again; it always takes at least a month for them to fight again like they always do. 

Not this time. He practically drags Persephone to Hadestown this year, kicking and screaming the whole way. 

”Love what ya done with the place, Hades,” she said, sarcastic words fizzling like acid on his skin. 

“You look like Hell,” he replies, low and dangerous, and she grins. 

“You wish.” 

It’s gonna be a long winter. 

_**This is the deep and dyin’ breath of  
** **This love we’ve been workin’ on** _

Really, it’s been a long time coming. There have always been cracks, little things here and there that cut a little deeper, scarred a little fiercer. Spending eternity together can do that to people– millennia of grudges and hate and lust and desire festering like milk left in the sun. But this is an ever-widening canyon, threatening the very fabric of their world. This is the summers getting hotter, the winters getting colder, spring and autumn becoming but distant memories. This is men and women and children dying at the hands of the gods like it’s the 8th century BC. 

It’s the 21st century. The world doesn’t have time for their bullshit anymore. 

_**Can’t seem to hold you like I want to  
** **So I can feel you in my arms** _

Hades knows he shouldn’t care. He knows it shouldn’t hurt him anymore, watching her leave. And yet it does, every time. Every time he watches her board that train he worries that she won’t come back. Every time he leaves her alone in that big, old house he worries she’ll sneak off to the bar and drink herself to oblivion. 

He just wants his wife back, splinters and all. 

_**Nobody’s gonna come and save you  
** **We pulled too many false alarms** _

She knows she shouldn’t blame him. She’s just as much at fault as he is for this feud, this dance with destruction they’re playing at. But she just can’t seem to care anymore. Maybe it’s the wine, maybe it’s the fact that she hasn’t seen the real him in centuries… 

_There’s no going back now_ , she tells herself over and over. _You gotta see it through._

Whatever the fuck this is, they gotta see it through. 

_**We’re goin’ down** _

_**And you can see it too** _

_**We’re goin’ down** _

_**And you know that we’re doomed** _

_**My dear, w** _ _**e’re slow dancing in a burnin’ room** _

She remembers how they used to be. 

How they laughed together when Zeus realised he could do nothing to appease Demeter after she found out her precious daughter had married the King of the Underworld. 

How they waltzed so slowly in their bedroom room the night she returned from her first summer Above, simply happy to be in the other’s presence after so many months apart. 

They haven’t danced in decades. Not since the last Poet failed. 

_**I was the one you always dreamed of  
** **You were the one I tried to draw** _

_**How dare you say it’s nothing to me  
Baby, you’re the only light I ever saw  
** _

He remembers the night he met her. 

How she danced in that field swollen with grain, her hair glowing in the moonlight, blinking with the fireflies, swaying with the trees. 

How he dreamed about the laughter in her eyes every night afterwards until he finally went back to the field, until he saw those eyes for himself, until he saw them looking at him. 

He’s always dreamt of her when she was Above. Now he even dreams of her when she’s Below, since she practically just as distant then. 

He wishes her eyes would laugh like that again. 

_**I’ll make the most of all the sadness  
** **You’ll be a bitch because you can** _

_**You try to hit me, just hurt me  
** **So you leave me feeling dirty  
** **‘Cause you can’t understand** _

“I’m goin’ to the bar, Hades,” she calls, barely stopping as she passes the door of his study. 

“Again, Seph?” He asks, frowning. 

She stops, turning to face him with thunderclouds gathering in her eyes. “You got a problem, Hades?” 

He levels his gaze with hers. “No. You?” 

“No.” 

“Good. I just worry, Seph, you know.” 

“And you know where you can shove your _worry_ , Hades. Up your–” 

He holds up a hand and she sneers, finishing her sentence in silence. His face softens. “Come home on your own two feet, Seph. That’s all I’m asking.” 

She rolls her eyes with a huff and stalks off down the hall, already reaching for her flask. 

Hades just sighs. 

_**We’re goin’ down** _

_**And you can see it too** _

_**We’re goin’ down** _

_**And you know that we’re doomed** _

_**My dear, w** _ _**e’re slow dancing in a burnin’ room** _

Persephone doesn’t come home that night. He hopes Hecate or one of the furies is looking after her, that she isn’t just passed out somewhere all alone. For all her complaining, she can’t say he doesn’t care about her. Maybe sometimes his care is a little… _misplaced_ … but he does care. 

He cares more than anything in the world. 

The radio is playing their waltz, and he turns it off with haste. 

There will be no dancing tonight. 

_**Go cry about it, why don’t you** _

She’s barely even a distraction. Some tiny little human, barely worth a second glance, asking the gods for favor and food. 

But she’ll make Persephone angry, and for once that sounds like a good idea. 

“Hey, little songbird, give me a song…” He asks her and she obliges. 

What’s one more soul anyhow? 

_**Go cry about it, why don’t you  
** _

He didn’t really think about the boy. If he’s honest, he didn’t even know. How’s he supposed to keep tabs on all the mortals while they’re still alive? It’s impossible! 

But the boy is Calliope’s boy. Or more importantly, he’s Hermes’ boy. Or most importantly, he’s _Persephone’s_ boy. 

Hades has gotten more than he bargained for. A man without a fare, asking the impossible? 

This is the price he pays for desperation.

_**Go cry about it, why don’t you  
** _

He wants to take her home, and Hades has to admit, he’s got guts. Not just anyone slips in through the Underworld’s back door and demands respect. 

But Hades can’t commend him for his courage. He can’t pat the boy with the lyre on the back and send him and that songbird on their merry way. 

Hades has standards, laws to uphold. And the law says you can’t bring someone back from the dead. 

He looks the other way as the workers beat Orpheus bloody. He has work to do, anyway. 

_**My dear, we’re slow dancin’ in a burnin’ room** _

Orpheus is a problem– it’s as simple as that. Persephone knows he’s not a _problem child_ , just a problem. A problem Hades has to deal with just like he would any other, a problem that must set an example. 

But _love_ is not a problem. _Hope_ is not a problem. For too long the workers, the shades, the thousands of souls down here have had nothing, and now Orpheus has given them voices. 

He’s given them love. 

He’s given them hope. 

And maybe Orpheus and Eurydice are just like Hades and Persephone. Maybe they deserves a second chance, a new corner of the world where the rules are just a little bit better. Maybe everyone else deserves that too. Maybe…

_**Don’t you think we outta know by now?  
** **Don’t you think we shoulda learned somehow?** _

He lets them go. Against all odds, he lets them leave. He sees her there, all alone against the deep red sky with crystals shining in her hair, and he falls in love all over again and he lets them go. 

He lets them go, but with strict instructions. 

As they watch them fade, Persephone squeezes his hand. Something blooms in his chest then, something Orpheus’ song has planted that hasn’t grown in a very long time. 

_Hope._

“Maybe it’ll be different this time, lover. Maybe they’ll make it.” 

“Maybe, lover. Maybe…” 

_**My dear, we’re slow dancin’ in a burnin’ room** _


End file.
